Even as the tarot world starts to have more conversations on diversity- one that hopefully goes beyond tokenization and starts with all of us- there is this idea that keeps popping up: that it is just modern decks that we should hold to the diversity standards. That traditional decks, historically inspired decks, etc cannot possibly be expected to be diverse.

Apparently people of color weren't invented before 1910!

I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit. Especially in a world where some 'Egyptian' inspired decks are whiter than bleached flour.

We have always been there. Colonialism and imperialism made sure of that.

Oh, and we made sure of that too- because, yes there were people of color all throughout Europe who weren't slaves or indentured and I never want to forget those stories either.

As a black queer femme tarot reader, I'm asking that we all stop blaming time for what humanity has wrought.

The original RWS deck didn't feature people of color because its creator chose it that way and a good chunk of its users preferred it that way- not because there weren't any people of color around with aspects of their lives mirroring any one of the 78 paths of the tarot.

That choice continues to be made, perhaps with less intention (or just as much intention), today in countless decks.